I have sleeping problems, are there any herbs or foods that help with insomnia?

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I have sleeping problems, are there any herbs or foods that help with insomnia?

JoAnn Guest Jun 01, 2005 18:54 PDT

Sunday, March 27, 2005

 

 

A reader asks, " Are there any foods, vitamins, herbs, etc, that can help with

insomnia? I've had sleeping problems for years, and I would really appreciate

any kind of useful information. "

 

With insomnia, it all basically boils down to endocrine system

imbalances. Sleep is a physiological function that is " controlled " by

" hormones " , and these hormones are of course released by endocrine

system glands according to a natural cycle.

 

A person who is having trouble sleeping is merely experiencing a

disruption in this natural cycle.

 

To answer this question, it is helpful to look at what promotes healthy

sleep cycles in the first place.

 

Perhaps the single most important influencing factor in setting these

cycles is exposure to natural sunlight. In fact, simply getting natural

sunlight during the day often corrects the problem outright.

 

I know it sounds simple, but exposure to sunlight is fundamental to

healthy sleep cycles.

 

A lot of this, of course, has to do with the production and suppression

of melatonin, which is also called the sleep hormone.

 

Melatonin levels normally rise at night, and peak during sleep. Once a

person wakes up and goes outside to get natural sunlight exposure,

melatonin levels are suppressed. This tells the body that daylight is

here, and that we should be awake and alert during the day.

 

But when a person avoids sunlight -- if they have an office job and only

get fluorescent light or other forms of artificial light during the day

-- these melatonin levels are not suppressed during the day. They remain

unnaturally high, and this tells the body that it may still be night.

 

This is why a lot of people tend to feel drowsy during the day or have

a lack of energy, and subsequently, they can't sleep at night either.

It's all due to the unnaturally high levels of melatonin during the day

which cause unnaturally low levels at night time as well.

 

So once again, the most effective strategy is to get sunlight --- to

suppress those melatonin levels during the day and let them come back

strong at night.

 

If you live in a climate where you can't get a lot of natural sunlight,

you can help yourself through the use of light boxes. However, light

boxes are not a replacement for natural sunlight.

 

In fact, nothing comes close to the intensity of light you receive from

the sun. Even high-powered light boxes only provide a fraction of the

light energy of natural sunlight. So make sure you get natural sunlight

on your skin.

 

And by the way, getting it through a window is not the same as getting

it outdoors. Windows filter out ultraviolet light, so you have to expose

your skin to direct sunlight.

 

(This is why many of the kings and queens in European history went mad,

by the way: they wanted to keep their skin pale by avoiding sunlight.

 

Nearly all royals were chronically deficient in vitamin D -- and that

causes schizophrenia, depression, aggression and other mental

disorders...)

 

There could be other problems causing insomnia as well. You might have

low melatonin production. Maybe you're getting sunlight during the day,

but at night your body isn't producing melatonin in the way that it

should. A shortcut to solving this is to take melatonin supplements.

These are available at health food stores or vitamin shops online.

Melatonin supplements should be taken an hour or so before bedtime, and

they will typically help people sleep more soundly.

 

But understand this is just a stop-gap measure. If your body isn't

producing melatonin, there's something imbalanced in your system, and

you need to get back to the fundamentals of health in order to recreate

an environment in which your body will naturally produce the required

levels of melatonin that support healthy, sound sleep

 

 

 

Overview:

 

Sleep is a physiological function that is controlled by hormones, and

these hormones are of course released by endocrine system glands

according to a natural cycle.

 

To answer this question, it is helpful to look at what promotes healthy

sleep cycles in the first place.

 

Perhaps the single most important influencing factor in setting these

cycles is exposure to natural sunlight.

 

A lot of this, of course, has to do with the production and suppression

of melatonin, which is also called the sleep hormone.

This is why a lot of people tend to feel drowsy during the day or have a

lack of energy, and subsequently, they can't sleep at night either.

 

It's all due to the unnaturally high levels of melatonin during the day

which cause unnaturally low levels at night time as well.

If you live in a climate where you can't get a lot of natural sunlight,

you can help yourself through the use of light boxes.

However, light boxes are not a replacement for natural sunlight.

So make sure you get natural sunlight on your skin.

And by the way, getting it through a window is not the same as getting

it outdoors.

 

Windows filter out ultraviolet light, so you have to expose your skin to

direct sunlight.

 

These are available at health food stores or vitamin shops online.

Melatonin supplements should be taken an hour or so before bedtime, and

they will typically help people sleep more soundly.

 

If your body isn't producing melatonin, there's something imbalanced in

your system, and you need to get back to the fundamentals of health in

order to recreate an environment in which your body will naturally

produce the required levels of melatonin that support healthy, sound

sleep.

 

Source: http://www.newstarget.com

 

Moderator's Note: As the author states, sleep is controlled by our

Hormones. This of course is linked to diet and is one of the primary

reasons why we should eat organically! Artficial hormones are prevalent

in the majority of animal foods (i.e. ALL non-organic meat and dairy.

These artificial hormones attach themselves to our hormone receptor

sites, interfering with natural hormone response.

 

Natural hormones have a very " short " life span, however artificial

hormones recirculate throughout the body and may never leave. Industrial

pollutants called " xenoestrogens " respond in a similar manner. The

Xenoestrogens (dioxins, etc) are not present in our plant foods however

they do take up residence in the animal kingdom and this includes our

human body as well.

Dioxins create " free radicals " , more commonly known as " immune

complexes " . Research indicates that these contaminants play a major role

in modern diseases.

JoAnn

 

__________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Wow...This was a great article!! I'm definitely going to be careful about

getting enough sunlight. I had no idea about that. I'm in an office all

day...I don't have a window in my office but there's one that I can see out of

across the hall. You'd think that just seeing that it was daylight outside

would be enough. Well...now I know better. Thanks!

 

Jen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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